Chapter 5:
“He’s drunk…this can’t mean what I think it does, can it?”-Cassidy
Cassidy
The hotel suite is huge and luxurious. Just like in college, I let Remi have the room with more windows. He is like a flower. He doesn’t seem like it, but he needs sunlight. He thrives in the sunlight and I want my best friend to thrive.
“What is that grin for?” Remington asks.
“You are considering calling him, aren’t you, Remi?”
“Maybe…I don’t do short term, but…it’s stupid. I can’t tell you and I can’t think straight, so never mind,” he groans before pulling his bag into his room across from mine.
“You can tell me anything! Besides, why think straight? You aren’t straight!” I shout playfully before turning to carry my luggage into my room.
A few minutes later, Remi appears framed by my doorway with his hands on his hips and an amused expression, “you must think yourself a comedian with those lines. Okay, Mr. Funny, what is next on the itinerary for tonight?”
“Next is dinner in the hotel’s main restaurant and cocktails at the bar, then we can decide from there. I don’t have to check out any acts until tomorrow and you need to get into the atmosphere of this lush, tropical paradise and its festive vibe,” I reply then smile. “It’s a whole mood.”
“Something tells me that I am going to need a vacation after this,” Remi chuckles.
“This is like work and vacation rolled into one, but if you insist, you can come home with me and celebrate while my brother takes his Alpha vows,” I offer. “I’d love to show you more of my hometown.”
“We’ll see. I did enjoy the visit the one time I went there with you,” Remi replies.
“It’s always a good time when we stick together,” I say with a shrug.
Remi’s nap on the flight here seems to have héros his mood. I wonder if he hasn’t slept enough lately.
“That’s easy for you to say, but you are the one who usually takes off with whatever girl or girls you fancy for the night whenever we go out anywhere,” Remi says with a disapproving look.
Remington has never voiced his disapproval of my lifestyle, but occasionally he gives me this look. Maybe, I should consider what it means. There is no time for that right now. Right now, we need to finish unpacking and then head down for our dinner reservations.
“I’m sorry, Remi. Let’s just focus on relaxing tonight,” I sigh. “I don’t mean to ditch you or anything. If you wanna talk about it later, then we can.”
“No, it’s okay,” Remington sighs. “I’m just…never mind.”
He keeps saying “never mind” today. Something is on my buddy’s mind and he is holding back. That’s not cool. He should be able to talk to me about anything. Maybe he just needs time to sort it out and then he’ll tell me.
“Let’s finish unpacking and get ourselves ready for dinner,” I suggest.
There is a tension in the air between us and I don’t like it. There usually isn't any tension between us.
I try not to think about it as I finish unpacking and then shower and get ready for dinner. I dress appropriately, in a short sleeved button up shirt and some khaki shorts and then wait for Remington to be ready.
“I see you opted for a more subtle look than I expected from you,” Remi chuckles as he comes out of his room dressed similarly.
“I’m not always flashy,” I chuckle. “I’m only flashy when that is what is expected of me. Let’s go get dinner.”
Remi raises a brow at me and snorts then shakes his head, but doesn’t say anything, he just turns and gestures for me to follow him.
The restaurant has the atmosphere I expected it to, elegant but casual and tropical. I opt for their signature steak dish with an avocado salad. Remi sticks with a completely vegetarian meal, something with lots of vegetables and some little grains that doesn’t appeal to me at all. It just goes to show how different we are from one another, but he helps to ground me, while I pull him out of his shell. We complement one another.
“Do you want dessert?” I ask Remi. “I could go for either the mango mousse cheesecake or pineapple brulee.”
“We could order both and have half of each. That is something I don’t mind splitting,” Remi suggests.
Sweets are one thing we have always been able to agree on.
Dessert was fabulous and the lounge is relatively quiet ahead of the week of festivities set to start tomorrow. A lounge singer with a mellow voice who croons in a minor key with a band behind him playing something that is reminiscent of tunes of a bygone era as we stroll up to the bar.
“I’ll have a mango beachside,” Remi says with a smile and I shake my head.
He always likes the sweet drinks, but I rarely go for them. It isn’t that I don’t like them. I have never had one of his fruity cocktails.
“I’ll have the same,” I say with a shrug. “It goes with the vibe.”
“Suuure,” Remi says, drawing it out and raising his brow at me. “You have been acting strangely today.”
“No more strangely than you have,” I snort. “I guess we are both strange. It’s probably the upcoming full moon, it’s supposed to be a doozy.”
“It’s the partial lunar eclipse. It does strange things to werewolves, but I don’t have my wolf,” Remi says. “I get saddled with all the weaknesses of both species and none of the benefits.”
“I don’t know about that…you have a gift with plants,” I reply as the bartender places our drinks in front of us and I open up a tab.
I lost track of how many drinks we had as the night went on, but Remi started dancing a few minutes ago and he is an adorable and sloppy mess. I think after I finish this drink, I need to get him back up to our suite even if this is exactly what I wanted. Remi never lets loose like this. He really needs to relax more.
“Come o-o-on, H-Handsome! D-Dance wi-ith m-me!” Remi slurs excitedly as he attempts to drag me out onto the dance floor even though he is nearly half my size.
“Fine, but after we dance, I should get you back up to a suite,” I reply before letting him lead me onto the dance floor.
We dance to the next two songs and when the tempo slows down, I pay our tab and gather my best friend to carry him up to our room, since he is still trying to dance even though he is super drunk. I metabolize alcohol faster, so it takes a lot of strong drinks to get me more than a little buzzed. This is a change of pace, me being the responsible one for a change.
I place Remi down in the elevator as I press the button for our floor and start to rise.
“Are you going to tuck me in, Gorgeous?” Remi asks me as he leans on me and wraps his arms around me, running his fingers through the short hairs at the nape of my neck and looks up at me with heavily lidded eyes.
My pulse quickens when his eyes dart to my lips and he pushes up on his tiptoes. He’s drunk…this can’t mean what I think it does, can it? My best friend can’t be considering kissing me, can he?